Collected Poems
Nabokov's masterly Collected Poems span the decades of his career, from 'Music', written in 1914, to the short, playful 'To Vera', composed in 1974. 'The University Poem', one of Nabokov's major poetic works, is here in English for the first time: an extraordinary autobiographical poem looking back at his time at Cambridge, with its dinners, girls and memories, it is suffused with rich description, wit and verbal dexterity. Included too are the surreally comic 'A Literary Dinner', the enchanting, 'Eve', the wryly humorous 'An Evening of Russian Poetry' and a meditation on the act of creation, 'Tolstoy', as well as verse written on America, lepidoptery, sport, love and Nabokov's Russian homeland.
Reviews
Cait🪼@figs0up
It's hard to review a collection of poetry: some I loved, some I disliked, some I didn't feel anything at all. My opinion on Nabokov also makes this a little difficult - he's incredibly talented, but I can't get away from Lolita: something he actually wrote a poem about. It's a great collection, regardless, and definitely displays the breadth of his talent! 'Alone, unknown, unloved, I die...and the room had grown a ghostly thorax, with a heart unknown, unloved - but not alone (The Room)